(PS3-89) The Brain’s Escape Hatch: The Longitudinal Role of Dissociation in the Development of PTSD Among School-aged Children Exposed to Complex Trauma

Abstract Text: Complex trauma, defined by many researchers as chronic, interpersonal trauma beginning early in life, often has pernicious developmental consequences for the children who endure them. However, some children who survive exposure to complex traumatic events do not develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A wealth of research on traumatic stress in adults has identified the presence of dissociative symptoms as a particularly salient predictor of PTSD in adults. At this time, however, dissociation has yet to be investigated as a predictor for PTSD among children who experienced complex trauma. To explore this question, we used the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) dataset, which is a collection of longitudinal studies examining the predictors and effects of childhood maltreatment in 1,354 America children at high risk for these experience. The Modified Maltreatment Classification System (MMCS) was used to rate the severity of abuse the children suffered before age 8. Additionally, the Trauma Symptoms Checklist for Children (TSCC) was completed at both ages 8 and 12 to measure dissociative symptoms and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) at each of these timepoints. It was hypothesized that dissociative symptoms would mediate the relationship between complex trauma exposure and increased posttraumatic stress symptoms. Demographic data indicates that participants were 53.3% Black, 26.6% White, 11.4% multiracial, 7.2% Hispanic, and 1.6% another race, while 47.8% were female and 50.4% male. According to the MMCS, 40.1% of the children had experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual abuse by age 8. The TSCC dissociative subscale, 13.9% of these children had clinically significant dissociative symptoms at age 8, while the TSCC PTSS subscale indicated that 16.5% had clinically significant symptoms of posttraumatic stress at age 8. A much smaller percentage reported clinically significant dissociative or PTSS at age 12 (2.2% and 2.5%, respectively). Additional analyses, including linear regression and mediation analyses, will further examine these relationships to better illuminate the associations between dissociative symptoms and PTSS at each time point. Results could provide clinically meaningful data that could allow for service providers to intervene more effectively after a child is exposed to a traumatic event. Additionally, better understanding the relationship between dissociation and PTSS could shed light on the interventions that may be most effective for children who dissociate during and after traumatic events.